Solving common travel nightmares

Solving common travel nightmares

What’s your biggest travel nightmare? Standing in a long line at an airport only to find your flight has been cancelled? Getting lost? Missing your wakeup call? A Windows Mobile powered Smartphone can help you avoid all of these problems and more.

A Smartphone is not only a phone, it’s also a small computer that allows you to answer and send e-mail, check your calendar and contacts, listen to music and videos, browse the Internet—the list goes on. Using a Smartphone, you can check the status of your flight before you even get to the airport.

Northwest Airlines, for example, offers a mobile version of its site that allows you to enter your flight number and the date, and receive up-to-date information about your flight, the gate, and weather information for your trip. If you really planned ahead you could sign up for an e-mail alert to get information on your flight and gate, and then easily check this on your Smartphone. Several other airlines also have special Web sites for mobile devices.

If you happen to get stuck in a long line at an airport, check out the airline’s mobile Web site to see what’s going on with your flight. If it turns out that your flight has been cancelled, you may be able to use your Smartphone to get a seat on another flight before you even arrive at the ticket counter.

Once you finally make it to your destination, unfortunately, it’s all too easy to get lost. What’s with the freeway signs in some places? There are a number of applications that will allow your Smartphone to help you find your way. Most of them have turn-by-turn directions, both voice and on-screen. They’ll even automatically re-route you if you miss a turn. Most GPS programs require you to download maps of the area you plan to visit. Don’t forget to add the maps you need to your Smartphone before you take off on your trip.

And what’s worse than getting lost? How about getting stuck in traffic? Another nifty application, called Smart Traffic by Pharos sends live traffic incident and speed information right to your Smartphone. A graphical color-coded display lets you quickly see whether your planned route is jammed with traffic or moving fast, so you can adjust your path.

Finally, it’s hard to believe that getting a wakeup call is still a problem, but it is. Instead of relying on the hotel, you can set your Smartphone to be your personal alarm clock:

On the Home screen, select Start > Settings > Date and Time.

In Alarm, choose On to turn the alarm on.

In Alarm time, enter the time for the alarm to go off.

Select Done.

Being in an unfamiliar city will always be a little uncomfortable, but your Windows Mobile powered Smartphone can certainly make the experience much easier.